KU windfall

Boy, was I glad when I read about the $65 million windfall that the university will receive by marketing its athletics. There will finally be a way for the cash-strapped university to pay for the maintenance of its buildings.

More like this story on LJWorld.com

Comments

Sorry Bill you got it wrong. The athletic department merely USES KU for it's extravagance. There are no intentions to make KU a better school or to help maintain existing resources/buildings although without the great name behind KU basketball Coach Self,Coach Williams and Lew Perkins could not be over paid.

You've got it the wrong way around, merrill. KU uses the athletic department, which is self-serving and not reliant on the rest of the university, to market it's name, because there is NO OTHER REASON anyone would ever come here.

merrill: No, no they are not. KU is benefiting from the athletic department. KU basketball brings students to the university, and promotes the name of KU on a national stage just about every year. Without it, we would have many, many less students enrolled from outside of Kansas, and no one would know who we are. Face it, research excellence and academic leadership do not attract people to universities for undergraduate degrees. Athletics do a far better job of that.

Shouldn't all that moo-lah that athletics rakes in, be used to benefit the whole university?

Why do we need a statewide tax to pay for KU building repairs when so many of the university's resources go to the athletic program?

KU athletics is elitist and that sucks. At $45 a person (including babies) there are a lot of middle and low income people who can never see a KU game. That takes all of the sportsmanship out of it, in my book.

It's all just a big business and I don't see who benefits, except the few individuals overrewarded with scholarships (scholarships are good) and goodies (a $350k house for a single basketball player is excessive).

Face it, KU's Men's Basketball is the only thing worthwhile in this town. Lawrence would have faded away without their program. Yes, I do know that the University wasn't founded with a basketball agenda, but that's where we are today. The basketball team brings more business to this town than the crappy Mass Street area.

The university ought to excel in academics so there truly would be another reason to come to KU. The choice to obsess over athletics, and ignore academics, is one for which I have no respect.

=========
KU does excell in many academic areas. As for obsession with athletics, read a bit of history, the original Olympics and the Roman 'bread and circuses' come to mind. Like it or not, we are programmed as a species for some of this. Comes from having three brains in one skull. The 'fanatical' ape, anyone?

That is exactly the point. The university ought to excel in academics so there truly would be another reason to come to KU. The choice to obsess over athletics, and ignore academics, is one for which I have no respect.

blackwalnut: Our academics are already respectable. They are not going to ever be top-tier, due to our geographical placement and the realities of economics. We're a good school in quite a number of different fields, but we are not ever going to attain the same status as the Ivy League, either in terms of reputation or accomplishments. That's not really even what we're for.

The choice to obsess over athletics and ingore academics hasn't ever been made. It's simply not true.

Every time the athletic department's spending comes up someone, who apparently has been living in a fog for twenty years, forcefully asserts "they are separate budgets." Or, "no state money goes into the athletic department." Or, "the athletic department is a separate corporation." Please, please, wait for the fog to clear before writing anything such as that as a justification for extravagant spending and gouging students, tuition paying parents and tax payers, all in the name of glorious athletics at KU. The simple point of the fact is that KU athletics is not a stand alone entity. It relies on state and tuition paid for facilities and property. It relies on tax monies to pay chunks of the coaches and staff's salaries. So, give us all a break and think up a new excuse for extravagant spending and gouging students, tuition paying parents and tax payers, all in the name of glorious athletics at KU.

This was a joke right? Sorry bill, that money was generated by the athletics dept and will be used to promote the teams and help boost the salaries of those in the athletic dept. Besided why would they use this money for improvements when all they have to do is hold out for the new toll increase and tax rates for the local people.

Dont forget to attend our next "HOME" game. And remember, it is now out of state and not realy a home game